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Recently tried to retune a friends Philips 37 PF 9731/10 tv. It finds 123 channels but only stores 40. Had the following conversation with Philips
Welcome to Philips, you are now chatting with Michael 13:45:33
Michael: Hello. Welcome to Philips TV support. 13:46:00
Michael: Are you using any external digi box to watch the TV or it’s a standard freeview ? 13:46:17
Richard: built in freeview 13:46:39
Michael: Okay. In this case, I am afraid, that the only solution is to buy an external digi box compatible with the new signal after the switchover 13:47:51
Michael: Your TV has got a standard digital tuner built in, capable of getting MPEG-2 13:48:16
Richard: Why? 13:48:19
Michael: New signal is MPEG-4 13:48:23
Richard: The tv finds 123 channels. why does it not store them? 13:49:48
Michael: Because it is not capable of storing the channels broadcasted in MPEG-4 properly 13:50:25
Michael: To be honest with you, it is even a goo thing, that it finds channels at all 13:50:48
Michael: Although without an external freeview box capable of getting the new signal, it will not be able to store them permanently 13:51:21
Richard: It was £2400 13:52:08
Richard: Is this tv capable of storing 123 MPEG-2 channels? 13:53:32
Michael: Yes, but not MPEG-4. 13:54:10
Michael: MPEG-2 is not used any more for some time now. 13:54:39
Richard: After a very recent retune previously stored channels have gone. why could it store them three days ago but not now? 13:55:28
Michael: Maybe in your area they have cut off the old the old signal. 13:57:36
Michael: All in all, the TV will not store the channels properly. 13:57:48
Richard: How can I find out What the channels are broadcast in? 14:00:56
Michael: Please, contact the switchover people to confirm that, if you do not believe me. 14:02:35
I also have a 2001 humax freeview and 2008 PVR and a Philips DTR200/05. All are MPEG-2 and are working fine. Its a neighbors tv connected to the sane communal aerial as mine.
Is the MPEG-4 reason from philips right?
SD Freeview and Satellite use mpeg2 video compression. HD use a modern version of mpeg4 H264/AVC. Pretty well all HD tv’s have mpeg4 capable tuners. The issue is that Freeview in the UK use a different modulation for the HD channels. SD uses DVB-T and HD uses DVB-T2
The TV is from 2006 and has a HD ready sticker on it so is presumably not HD. None of the above mentioned freeview boxes are HD but are working fine. The tv is failing to store more than 40 SD channels.
Astral Giant – 27 minutes ago »
The TV is from 2006 and has a HD ready sticker on it so is presumably not HD. None of the above mentioned freeview boxes are HD but are working fine. The tv is failing to store more than 40 SD channels.
Sounds like a software issue with the TV. One thing is certain mpeg4 is a complete red herring. The TV tuner spec should be in the TV manual.
I tried the manual but could not find the specification. I had a feeling the information was wrong. Back to philips. Thanks.
Just found the spec in a leaflet. TV is DVB-T.
I’d question where it’s finding 123 channels from, I have 42 SD channels stored, although I have deleted some.
How many channels do you get on your 2001 Humax freeview?
There is a software update for this TV from 2008 on the philips website, I’d update this software first, factory reset it and set up again.
If after updating/resetting/retuning you can still only get 40 channels stored and you can get more on your own Humax freeview then the TV has to be faulty.
I think the choice then has to be whether you can find and save 40 channels you want or get a set top box
The search states 123 channels including radio. Had a previous problem with the philips freeview box only being able to store 100 channels. Will check later but there are over 100 channels out there. I don’t know what all these channels are but some are missing. As an example the philips TV does not find or store the BBC childrens channels which the other freeview boxes find and store. Before retuning these could be watched on this TV.
I would think that the TV is picking up signals from multiple transmitters. Also I would check that the missing channels were broadcasting when you tuned.
Is there a way you can manually tune?
Old Humax freeview and newer pvr both find and store 123 channels. 99 tv and 24 radio. Some are not available such as BT sport but are visible and stored. The Philips tv finds 123 channels but does not show them in the guide or store them. The reception and available channels are the same. Three noticeably missing channels are from Childrens BBC. These are freely available not subscription and should be stored by the tv.
I’ve contacted Philips again and will wait for their response.
Received this response from Philips
Yes, the information that has been provided is correct. Your TV tuner is not capable of tuning in all the stations because of the signal change that took place in March this year. As a result your TV will not be able to tune all the stations without the help of an external device ie. freeview box.
The advice from philips is freeview is now broadcast in MPEG-4 is contradicted by this http://www.ukfree.tv/txdetail.php?a=SK113003
which clearly shows many of the missing channels are MPEG-2.
Am I missing something or are Philips wrong?.
Astral Giant – 1 hour ago »
Received this response from Philips
Yes, the information that has been provided is correct. Your TV tuner is not capable of tuning in all the stations because of the signal change that took place in March this year. As a result your TV will not be able to tune all the stations without the help of an external device ie. freeview box.
The advice from philips is freeview is now broadcast in MPEG-4 is contradicted by this http://www.ukfree.tv/txdetail.php?a=SK113003
which clearly shows many of the missing channels are MPEG-2.
Am I missing something or are Philips wrong?.
Freeview Standard Definition channels are all DVB-T 576i (576 lines interlaced) mpeg2. SD only tuners are not mpeg4 capable so any SD channel transmitted mpeg4 wouldn’t be usable on anything. There is one multiplex only usable by Freeview-HD capable kit that uses H264/AVC (mpeg4) 1080i/p (a mixture of interlaced and progressive content) DVB-T2 1920 x 1080 which carries the current 4 High Definition channels.
I had an old sagem freeview box and philips and sagem have worked together in the past. The old box could store something like 50 channels and after more channels became available there was a software update that increased its ability to something like 60 channels, obviously not enough.
Philips can/could claim that the signal change in March, simply by adding extra channels, has made the tv tuner incapable of tuning into all the channels.
I mentioned previously that there is a software update from 2008 for the old amberlight tv and if it were mine this would be the first thing I’d update as it may solve the problem.
My freeview box also finds around 123 channels, including radio, although I only have 42 SD, didn’t realise I’d cleared out so much rubbish.
If the software update doesn’t help and you can’t manually tune and it’s too tricky to plug and unplug the aerial whilst it’s tuning to miss out certain frequencies, then it looks like a new tv or external freeview box is needed.
I think the mpeg2/4 is a bit of a red herring here. When freeview first came out there were only a dozen or so tv channels. Being able to store 40 was more than enough. What would be useful to know is the original specification for the tv and if it were 40 channels then that’s it regardless of mpeg2 or mpeg4 (which it can’t receive). If it were 80 or 100+ then the tv is faulty and a cheap freeview box is likely to be less expensive than a repair.
What might help is the software update on the philips website from 2008
In my online chat with Philips I specifically asked if it would store 123 channels because of problems with a similar age Philips freeview box which only stores 100 channels. (DTR200/05.) Philips confirmed this tv can store 123 MPEG-2 channels. My 2001 Humax box stores 200 channels and 2008 Humax pvr stores 999 so if this 2006 tv only stores 40 its poorly specced from new.
I think the software is 2006 and may possibly be a problem but its not my tv so am not keen to mess with it too much. I am suprised Philips did not ask about or suggest this.
I’ve contacted Philips again with details of the channels available to me and asked again for help in storing these channels. Will update with the reply.
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